The public doesn’t like a blank check. They think this whole bailout idea is nuts. They see fat cats on Wall Street who have raked in zillions for years, now extorting in effect $2,000 to $5,000 from every American family to make up for their own nonfeasance, malfeasance, greed, and just plain stupidity. Wall Street’s request for a blank check comes at the same time most of the public is worried about their jobs and declining wages, and having enough money to pay for gas and food and health insurance, meet their car payments and mortgage payments, and save for their retirement and childrens’ college education. And so the public is asking: Why should Wall Street get bailed out by me when I’m getting screwed?

So if you are a member of Congress, you just might be in a position to demand from Wall Street certain conditions in return for the blank check…

1. The government (i.e. taxpayers) gets an equity stake in every Wall Street financial company proportional to the amount of bad debt that company shoves onto the public. So when and if Wall Street shares rise, taxpayers are rewarded for accepting so much risk.

2. Wall Street executives and directors of Wall Street firms relinquish their current stock options and this year’s other forms of compensation, and agree to future compensation linked to a rolling five-year average of firm profitability. Why should taxpayers feather their already amply-feathered nests?

3. All Wall Street executives immediately cease making campaign contributions to any candidate for public office in this election cycle or next, all Wall Street PACs be closed, and Wall Street lobbyists curtail their activities unless specifically asked for information by policymakers. Why should taxpayers finance Wall Street’s outsized political power – especially when that power is being exercised to get favorable terms from taxpayers?

4. Wall Street firms agree to comply with new regulations over disclosure, capital requirements, conflicts of interest, and market manipulation. The regulations will emerge in ninety days from a bi-partisan working group, to be convened immediately. After all, inadequate regulation and lack of oversight got us into this mess.

5. Wall Street agrees to give bankruptcy judges the authority to modify the terms of primary mortgages, so homeowners have a fighting chance to keep their homes. Why should distressed homeowners lose their homes when Wall Streeters receive taxpayer money that helps them keep their fancy ones?

Give me a break! If there were a politician who had integrity and said the same thing to everyone, that politician would not get elected. Politicians lie because people do not want to hear the truth. People will only vote for politicians who tell them what they want to hear.

This is what I think:

If you want to get elected you are expected to lie about many things.

If you had an extra-marital affair, you are expected to lie.

If you smoked pot as half of all Americans have, you are expected to lie.

If you ever cheated on your taxes, you are expected to lie.

It seems that American’s are currently incapable of facing the reality that politician’s are human, that all politician’s have skeleton’s in their closet, relative to the expectations of the American public, that political parties will use these skeletons and if they can’t find any, the political parties will manufacturer them through negative public relations campaigns. Why should we expect our politicians to be somehow morally superior to us, the average citizen?

We elect politicians to do a job.

Our politicians should be qualified to do that job.

Our politicians should not be corrupt and should not have a record of corruption. This is not a simple matter. What determines if a politician is corrupt?

This is the definition of corruption per the Merriam-Webster dictionary:

1. Impairment of integrity, virtue, or moral principle 2. Inducement to wrong by improper or unlawful means (as bribery) 3. A departure from the original or from what is pure or correct 4. An agency or influence that corrupts.

So good voters, study this definition well and study to determine if you think a politician fits this definition. If in your best judgement they do then – DO NOT vote for them. We don’t need corrupt politicians!

I predict most voters will continue to elect the politician who lies the most. I believe that is one of the main reasons we have so much corruption built into our political systems. It simply reflects the bad judgement of voters and the limited choices they are presented by our political system.

A few weeks ago I posted on Lie of the day about the lottery being a tax on the poor. I believe there is some truth to that statement. Don’t get me wrong through, I used to buy lotto tickets now and then, but had stopped buying them because I seemed to never win anything.

It had been about a year since I bought a ticket. Well the other day I was filling my truck with gas and bought a dollar lotto ticket. In the back of my mind I was thinking that karma might help me win because karma in my case always wants to prove me wrong. Sure enough – I won. I thought to myself, hmmm, I posted some thing about the lotto screwing the poor and I win two dollars? Then I think about the old line that karma is a bitch and here at this point in my life, I have come to grips with karma by writing ‘the lotto is a scam’ post about screwing the poor out of there hard earned dollars – by winning! Well being the wild gambler that I am and knowing that karma is going to make sure I win, I decided to go all out – so I buy another two dollar ticket and as Karma would have it I win five dollars this time!

I decided to not push my karma any harder, knowing that karma was using me to take the food out of some poor child’s mouth. So I took my booty and put it in my wallet and hung my head in shame.

Do you think that Karma is real or is it just a lie we tell ourselves?

I’ve had this picture in the ideas folder for some time now. I knew I wanted to do something with it, but I just could not figure out what I wanted to do. First I thought, ahhh!, make a joke, the line could say, “I knew it, the whinny liberals don’t want us to enjoy our life!”. Finally it hit me; what I wanted to write about smoking here is that I am a former smoker and I can tell you this – between my ex-wife and smoking I am not going to see 100.

What I want to say about smoking and pass on is how I quit, because its a real pain in the butt to quit. I was no lightweight smoker, I smoked 2 packs a day. I started smoking when I was 16, you know to be cool. Then I got married. My new wife (at that time) asked me to quit. I did and did not smoke again until I got to know the real woman that I had married and got so stressed out that I started smoking again.

So I started smoking again. Well, it took me ten years then one day it hit me. I thought to myself, you dumb ass your killing your self do you really want that c___ to out live you? So, I started trying to quit, first cold turkey. I had done that one once before but I was newly married to what I thought was a good woman and I was getting sex so cold turkey was not all that bad. That was when I was single and hooked and I tried cold turkey – no luck at all. To make a long story short, I tried several ways before I came up with what worked for me. I took an empty coffee can outside, smoked my last cigarette, then I took the money for the next two packs for that day, put the money in the coffee can and then I made a vow to myself that I would put the money in the coffee can each day and I could not touch it for two years but, if I had a cigarette even a bummed one, I would burn all the money in the can. I made it for 21 days, I broke my vow to myself – there was 80 dollars in that can. Money was tight at that time and really important to me and it damn near killed me to keep my vow to myself and to burn up the $80.00 but I knew it would have been burned up anyway if I had smoked the 21 packs.

I have not had a cigarette since 1998 and after two years I had saved a little bit over $2,735.00 in that same can. I added this money towards buying a nicer Yamaha ATV. Mostly I am so glad that I quit.

If you smoke and want to quit I hope you find a way too.

I hope to hear some other true story’s for quitting smoking of course you can lie too.

I have frequently heard it said that prostitution is a gateway to drugs and crime. It seems to me that this is true but only because prostitution is illegal and forced to be practiced in league with other illegal activities. Through forced association, prostitution does become a gateway to other crimes.

If prostitution were legal it would be regulated like any other business. Prostitutes would be sex workers with rights and privileges, advantages and disadvantages like any other employee. There would be some crime and corruption no doubt, to the extent that there is crime and corruption in legitimate businesses not forced into association with illegal activities. Prostitution would become a service oriented business.

There are many lonely people who for one reason or another are not able to have normal relationships with benefits of sharing in a sexual way. The reasons for this may be medical, emotional, self-esteem issues, perceived social status or fear of intimacy and there there are likely many reasons I have not thought of that some men and woman might want or need this service. As citizens in a free country, I think their reasons for wanting or needing this service are none of my business. Legalizing prostitution would lessen the tax burden on the average citizen because these businesses would pay taxes and contribute to the welfare of the community by doing so. The cost of law enforcement could be reduced or the resources available to law enforcement currently be used to enforce laws against sex business could be redirected toward actual heinous criminal activities that actually DO harm to citizens such as those crimes related to violence, fraud and deception.

To further refine the title question: Why do taxpayers allow tax dollars to be wasted through criminalization of behaviors that may be deemed distasteful but that do not harm then further waste tax dollars to enforce those same laws?

It just makes sense to mind our own business, to allow people who want to provide these services and people who want to use these services the freedom to do so.

In a prior post I sort of half-assed lined out what I thought the Republican Party strategy has been for the past seven or so years.

I think McCain/Palin has changed strategy. They are using the Snipe hunting strategy.

When I was in High School, most every boy at one time or another went with his already initiated friends to hunt Snipe or Side Hill Dodgers or Hide-Behinds.

It was a right-of-passage. I went out with my friends, my gunny-sack (you always caught these things in gunny-sacks) for my first Snipe hunt, my Dad told me ‘son, there is no such thing as Snipe’. I knew my friends wouldn’t lie to me so I went hunting with them but by my third hunt I started to wonder if maybe my Dad knew something I didn’t know, as I had yet to see one Snipe.

It was a play on my youthful gullibility.

I am guessing that McCain/Palin are gambling that most people now-a-days haven’t gone through that right-o-passage…

I am guessing that McCain/Palin are gambling that most American’s will not use the internet to research the facts about their claims for themselves.

They are probably right.

I would call the McCain/Palin strategy ‘The big gamble’ strategy. It seems to me that they take big gambles on just how gullible Americans might really be.

This is a bit of a personal story and a true story. I have a friend that moves all over looking for utopia. He drags his family from town to town and state to state they never settle in one place long enough to find decent jobs, they always complain about no work. After about two months they complain the people in these new towns do drugs or drink to much, jobs in the area just don’t pay enough. They live on the edge of life, but with the thought that some one, some where be it family or big brother will keep them them from falling into the abyss. They don’t see that they fell long ago and that they are at the bottom and looking up and only able to see assholes.

So here is my question – Is there such a place that you can go to or is utopia a state of your own mind?.

Say you are at the flea market and you see a woman there with two small children trying to sell personal items. You can tell she and her kids are down on their luck. It is near the end of the day. Her kids are a bit whinny. You talk with her and find out her husband died last year. She tells you it has been a slow day at the flea market. She really needs the money to feed her kids. The only thing she has of any value is her wedding ring. She tells you her late husband paid $10,000 for it eight years ago and it is obvious worth that, but she needs to feed her kids. She is willing to sell it for $500.00. She is desperate. You have the $500.00 on you but you pull out $150.00 and tell her that is all you have. She cries as she hands you her ring.

Truth or Lie – Would you take advantage of a person down on their luck? It is not like you know them.

Being an American, this is what I have noticed about lies of omission:

Every decade seems to encourage certain lies of omission and every decade seems to permit or encourage certain truths to be told.

in the 1960’s young people were encouraged to tell the truth about their disdain for ‘authority’ and the ‘establishment’. This truth infected the society at large and there was a general disdain for authority and the ‘establishment’. Certain truths are also discouraged during each generation. In the 1960’s, people were discouraged from expressing patriotism or traditional religious beliefs.

During the 1970’s people of all ages were encouraged to tell the truth about how much they liked sex. This truth also infected the society at large. Adult theaters called ‘Pussy Cat theaters’ were common in most towns as were nude bars, etc. ‘Open marriage’ was a common concept and there were many main stream movies that promoted these kinds of ideas like ‘Bob, Carol, Ted and Alice’. The one night stand was considered a normal, socially acceptable relationship. Prudishness about sex was discouraged. Divorce was encouraged. Therapists would commonly encourage people to get a divorce if there was any dissatisfaction expressed during counseling sessions.

in my opinion, the 1980’s showed signs of overt manipulation of peoples values, wherein citizens were bombarded via TV and radio with government promotion of a return to traditional Family and Christian values. This came about at a time when most people were already fed up with many of the excesses of the 1960’s and 1970’s that were impacting our society in negative ways and this bombardment had a strong effect.

The 1990’s seemed to be about Globalization, multicultural-ism, Big Box Retail Stores, Windows95 and, leveling the playing field. It was a new post cold war world we lived in. The conservative values fostered in the 1980’s by the Reagan Administration seemed to take root during this period. There was this idea of ‘tough love’ floating around.

This new American Century was marked and largely defined by 911, Anti-Terrorism, War and rising prices. The brand of conservative family values and christian values so heavily promoted in the 1980’s during the Reagan Administration and after 911, becomes a fundamentalist force to be reckoned with by those who would favor liberty and democracy over an authoritarian and theocratic interpretation of the primary founding documents of America, our Declaration of Independence, our Constitution and, our Bill of Rights.

This is what confuses me so about having lived through these nearly 5 decades: If you were to follow the life course of average American’s that I have known, you would find a majority of people who used drugs in the 1960’s and called the police ‘pigs’, who in the 1970’s got divorced or cheated on their partners or participated in ‘group gropes’. You would find many of these same people in the 1980’s, seeing themselves as Christian Conservatives who believe in ‘traditional values’ and who by the time the 1990’s came around, would not admit to having been hippies in the 1960’s and/or swingers in the 1970’s. Then after 911, these same people changed once more to some kind of person I hardly recognize as an American or even a friend.

Then there are people like me. I was slightly influenced by each decade but never gave in to the excesses of what became normal behavior in each decade, including this one. I carry forward the parts of each decade that influenced me. Those influences make me who I am today, which is way outside the mainstream. Not hippie, not swinger, not traditional, not authoritarian. I am a quienticential product of the American way – not a product of any given decade I have survived.

In my opinion, there are lies of omission about the personal transformations most middle age Americans have gone through to ‘fit in’ during some of these rather bizarre periods of radical transformations in American culture. I think that if middle age Americans started being honest about who they really are rather than pretending and going with the flow of these ‘movements’ (and I think this ‘New American Century’ after 911 IS just another ‘movement’) we would see that America is not what it pretends to be now. I am not sure what America is and, I can only speak only from the perspective of my unique generation, but I think all this pompous authoritarian fundamentalist stuff at least when worn by Americans over the age of 50 is not flattering considering their ‘real’ histories and is a dangerous pretense that hides a generation of adults who are too easily influenced and have few core values that can withstand peer pressure. I think if tomorrow, the majority of people started calling the police – ‘pigs’, these same conservative old people would go with the flow and do the same things they have done in the past, they would start seeing me as ‘establishment’ rather than liberal because I would be supporting the police and think these instant liberals were jerks.

“Hypothetical: “ Suppose you are a taxi driver. One morning you go to work and have coffee with a co-worker. She tells you how she made over $200.00 helping a person she was sure was a drug dealer by driving him around town in her taxi to do what she believed were drug deals.

This co-worker considers herself a responsible, good citizen who is doing nothing wrong in this particular case. She considers this a gray area. She is turning a blind eye toward what this passenger might be doing because she profits by being his driver.

Do you have situations in your life with gray areas and where do you draw the line?

Don’t laugh. Lots of people think that instantly coming into a few million dollars means life on easy street, money that will be around forever, and no need for responsibility or work.

The truth is very rarely does it work out like that for a lottery winner. Unfortunately, a new study published in the Journal of Behavioral Decision Making finds that people who feel poor are more eager to spend money in an attempt to get rich (this is a good “duh” moment). One recent report found that families who make under $12,400 spend about $645 a year on lottery tickets.

Many poor people are fooled by what they think it means to win the lottery. It’s usually the worst thing that could ever happen to someone.

Coming into a quick pile of cash usually means that people will come out of the woodwork looking to get a piece of your pie. Third cousins whom you didn’t even know existed will call and hit you up for money. You’ll get letters in the mail from complete strangers with every sob story imaginable (unemployed, sick children, in a wheelchair, etc.) in an attempt to get sympathy points and money from you. It puts a big target on your back, and most often it takes you out, too.

When you are feeling the money crunch, the last thing you want to do is spend what little money you have on a super-long shot for money. The odds of winning a lottery are literally about 1 in 125 million.

You are 66 times more likely to die from a snake bite.

You are 2,001 times more likely to die in the electric chair!

You are 2,201 times more likely to die from a hornet, wasp or bee sting.

You are 1,488,095 times more likely to die in a car wreck on the way to the gas station to buy the lottery ticket.

Does all this sound ridiculous? GOOD! It’s supposed to sound that way! Banking on winning the lottery is about as ridiculous as it gets!

Think about this for a second. The less money you have, the more wisely you need to manage it because you don’t have as much room for error. When you make a budget and get out of debt, you have some breathing room. Your budget can get busted when an emergency comes up, but that’s why you save up an emergency fund. The ultimate is when you start investing the money you have. The reason for that is eventually your money will grow to enormous sums because of the power of compound interest.

Forget the lotto. Working hard and saving money is the only surefire way to make money. It works every time … unlike the lotto.